Along with the rest of the people in the packed theater, she couldn’t believe the scene playing out in front of her. Beau’s wife was only in her late twenties, and other than drinking too much, she hadn’t given any indication of an underlying medical problem. So how could a fall cause enough damage to stop her heart? The sound of the doctor’s voice shouting “Clear” and the thud that followed as he shocked Charlese’s heart one more time echoed across the theater. Eerie silence. An occasional murmur from the front row. Beau stood up but remained behind the judge’s table with a stunned look on his face, watching as if the emergency resuscitation was happening to a stranger rather than to his own wife. After listening to the woman’s chest with a stethoscope, the doctor turned to Emily and shook his head. “She’s gone,” he said simply, then bent down and sniffed her mouth before straightening back up. “But we have a much bigger problem here, I’m afraid. Can someone get the head of security down here immediately?”
